The Story of Odysseus

authored by Franklin Tipton, curated by Libby Brockhoff

Our famous storytelling metaphor begins with the famous problem solver of ancient Greece. The troubleshooter. The “Man with the Plan”. He was the guy called in to sort out the whole stalled-out Troy invasion problem. After enduring to years of conventional ideas, our hero steps off the boat to find an army, conveniently about the size of a modern-day holding-company-owned advertising agency, sat static, bloated and drunk. Nary an ounce of momentum, but great bronze tankards of inertia and free booze spilled over throughout the ranks. Not surprisingly, it took Odysseus five seconds to conceive the Trojan horse idea and deploy the solution with epic results. Smaller was nimbler, even 28 centuries ago.